Former firefighter guilty of setting two wildland blazes
A crew works to save a home from the Boulder 2700 Fire in the summer of 2021. (Courtesy of the Finley Point/Yellow Bay Fire Department)
Former firefighter Craig McCrea was found guilty last Thursday on two of four counts of arson after a dramatic four-day trial at the Lake County Courthouse.
The jurors emerged midway through deliberations to tell Judge Robert Deschamps that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the four counts. He counseled the jury members to return and “collaborate,” noting that the instructions “to not surrender your honest convictions does not mean you should avoid your honest task.”
When they returned to the courtroom after total of about five hours, the jury unanimously determined that McClure was guilty of starting the approximately 18-acre Finley fire on Evaro Hill and the devastating Boulder 2700 fire, July 31, 2021, on the east shore of Flathead Lake. The latter blaze burned 2,589 acres, consumed 14 homes and 17 other structures, and forced the evacuation of Finley Point.
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